Agriculture Mission Lead – Earth Observation and Agricultural Decision Support

ETH Zurich is establishing the ETH Swiss Geo Lab
, a new interdisciplinary unit of ETH Zürich I Space
. ETH Space will soon become one of few strategic centres of ETH Zurich, and encompasses overall five units.

The Geo Lab is focused on Earth observation and its applications. The Geo Lab uses satellite, airborne, ground-based and in-situ observations. To these diverse data sets it applies AI-driven analysis methods and high-performance computing to develop solutions for specific societal and economic challenges.

Located at the D4 Business Village in Root, close to Lucerne, ETH Swiss Geo Lab works at the interface of research, technology development and practical application. In its first phase, the Geo Lab is focusing on few selected high-impact application areas where Earth observation, geodata and AI-based analytics can create tangible value for Switzerland. In agriculture, this includes challenges related to productivity, resilience, resource efficiency, environmental performance and decision support for practitioners and policymakers.

The ETH Swiss Geo Lab is led by Prof. Dr Verena Griess and Prof. Dr Thomas Zurbuchen, with Dr Felix Seidel as Managing Director, responsible for the day-to-day operations of this exciting activity. The Geo Lab will grow into a project-based hub of around 100 experts over the coming years and will collaborate closely with other ETH units, the Swiss national centre for supercomputing (CSCS), Swiss research institutions, public-sector stakeholders, agricultural organisations, industry partners, start-ups and international stakeholders.

This position is offered as a fixed-term appointment for an initial period of two years, with the possibility of extension.

As Agriculture Mission Lead, you will spearhead the agriculture focused initiative - the Geo Lab Agriculture Mission - within Geo Lab. You will identify high-impact challenges in Swiss agriculture through direct interchange with key stakeholders and rely on domain-relevant data and experts. Moreover, you will define ambitious mission outcomes, translate practitioner needs into research and product goals, and drive solutions through field validation and adoption.

You will work closely with other Geo Lab mission teams, its Research Program Support team, and the Geo-Intelligence team (plus the external partners mentioned above). You will lead cross-functional and external experts and will have the authority to prioritize, redirect, and pivot or pause activities within the approved mission charter, budget and governance framework.

As part of your role, you will:

• On behalf of the Geo Lab leadership team, define an ambitious and coherent Agriculture Mission addressing major opportunities in productivity, resilience, resource efficiency and environmental performance
• Identify operational gaps where ETH Swiss Geo Lab can create distinctive value for Swiss agriculture
• Engage directly with farmers, agricultural advisory services, producer organisations, cooperatives, cantonal and federal authorities, insurers, technology providers and industry partners
• Identify unmet needs, operational constraints, incentives and economic drivers in agricultural practice
• Translate agricultural challenges into clear research, data, product and technical requirements
• Assess user value, economic viability, scalability and adoption potential
• Establish measurable mission outcomes, roadmaps, assumptions and success criteria aligned with Swiss agricultural needs and the overall Geo Lab strategy; you will also track progress actively against these outcomes
• Manage the delegated mission budget and define priorities, milestones and decision points and track finances and successes in that framework, through regular reporting activities to Geo Lab leadership and other stakeholders
• Work with Geo Lab’s Geo-Intelligence team – the team deeply focused on AI and analyses of big data amounts - and external performers to drive field pilots, validation, operational testing and integration into agricultural workflows
• Identify and mobilise strong research groups, agricultural organisations, technology companies, start-ups, service providers, insurers, public agencies and…